What to look out for as the Bundesliga season resumes
The Bundesliga is back after 68 DAYS! Bayern Munich sit pretty at the top but RB Leipzig are in pursuit, underdogs Freiburg could make the Champions League, Haller is back for Dortmund and are Schalke already doomed?
- German fans have been starved of top level domestic action for two months
- The World Cup and the traditional winter break have left a hole in the season
- However, the Bundesliga finally returns with Leipzig vs Bayern Munich on Friday
- Bayern lead the table by four points from surprise package Freiburg
- Leipzig could potentially give us a title race if they win at the Red Bull Arena
- Borussia Dortmund are hoping to welcome back Sebastien Haller to the team
Quite remarkably, there hasn’t been any Bundesliga action since way back on November 13.
A combination of the mid-season World Cup and the traditional winter break have led German football fans starved of top-flight action for over two months.
Fortunately it comes back on Friday evening when Bayern Munich, the inevitable leaders after 15 rounds of the season, travel to RB Leipzig, who sit third.
Saturday and Sunday will then see everyone else crank-start their campaigns after a whole load of patient waiting, stars away in Qatar, training camps and January friendlies.
Here’s what to watch out for as the Bundesliga finally returns.
It comes as little surprise to see Bayern Munich topping the Bundesliga as the season resumes
It’s Bayern’s title to lose (as usual)
Bayern Munich’s clash with Leipzig on Friday night already has a season-defining feel, even though we’re not even midway through the league fixture list.
Julian Nagelsmann’s side entered the break sitting four points clear of surprise package Freiburg as they chase what would be an 11th consecutive Bundesliga title and a 17th this century.
A closer inspection of the league table reveals some other mad stats – Bayern have scored 49 goals in their 15 games (the next highest is Leipzig with 30) and their goal difference is a resounding +36 (the next best is Leipzig’s +9).
Sadio Mane celebrates a goal with Alphonso Davies (left) and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (right) during Bayern’s 6-2 win over Mainz at the end of October
How the top six in the Bundesliga table looks as the season resumes after a two-month pause
All this comes from some seriously one-sided scorelines – 7-0 vs Bochum, 6-1 vs both Werder Bremen and Eintracht Frankfurt, 6-2 vs Mainz and even 5-0 vs second-placed Freiburg.
Bundesliga fixtures
FRIDAY
RB Leipzig vs Bayern Munich
SATURDAY
Bochum vs Hertha Berlin
Cologne vs Werder Bremen
Eintracht Frankfurt vs Schalke
Stuttgart vs Mainz
Union Berlin vs Hoffenheim
Wolfsburg vs Freiburg
SUNDAY
Borussia Dortmund vs Augsburg
Borussia Monchengladbach vs Bayer Leverkusen
But Bayern have been far from perfect. They went four league matches without a victory in August and September, which is practically unheard of.
Nagelsmann, who came in for a lot of criticism when Bayern surprisingly lost to Villarreal in last season’s Champions League quarter-finals, will be annoyed that they topped their group with a perfect record then ran headlong into Paris Saint-Germain in the last-16.
It’s hardly been plain-sailing off the pitch either for Bayern, who had the joint second-highest number of players at the World Cup (16), behind only the 17 of Barcelona.
Lucas Hernandez ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament 13 minutes into France’s opening group match against Australia, while Morocco star Noussair Mazraoui is taking time out after medics detected a heart inflammation brought on by Covid.
Sadio Mane, who has scored 11 times since joining from Liverpool in the summer, missed Senegal’s World Cup with a knee injury but will hope to return soon.
Then there was keeper Manuel Neuer, ruled out for the remainder of the season after breaking his leg skiing, which raised many questions.
So Bayern have their problems but would you say they’re odd-on favourites to win yet another Bundesliga title? Yes you would.
Lucas Hernandez limped out of France’s World Cup campaign and remains sidelined
Manuel Neuer has been ruled out for the rest of the season after breaking his leg while skiing
Haller’s Dortmund return is the feel-good story of the season
Not only did Sebastien Haller play for Borussia Dortmund during their training camp in Marbella having undergone chemotherapy and two operations to treat a testicular tumour, he smashed a seven-minute hat-trick in a 6-0 win over Basel.
It was certainly an emotional moment given all the Ivory Coast striker has endured and it’s quite possible we will see him in competitive action for Dortmund soon.
Haller fell ill and received his devastating diagnosis just two weeks after joining from Ajax for £31million last July.
But he never gave up hope of making a comeback and proved his scoring touch remains.
Sebastien Haller is back playing for Borussia Dortmund after treatment for a testicular tumour
Haller has made an inspiring return to football after being diagnosed with a tumour last year
Haller is now targeting a return to competitive action when Dortmund play Augsburg
Haller, 28, is targeting a first Bundesliga appearance for the club against Augsburg on Sunday but admitted: ‘Participating is one thing, but being useful for the team is something else.’
Dortmund could do with some additional firepower. They currently sit a lowly sixth in the table, nine points adrift of Bayern and having lost six of 15 games so far.
Edin Terzic has had two months to dwell on the back-to-back defeats against Wolfsburg and Borussia Monchengladbach that concluded their Hinrunde.
Meanwhile, the second-half of Dortmund’s season will be played out against speculation over Jude Bellingham’s future with the England star, who shone brightly at the World Cup, linked with just about every good side in Europe.
Dortmund’s English star Jude Bellingham is attracting interest from Europe’s leading clubs
‘I can’t wait to play in the Bundesliga again. It’s really difficult when all the other leagues are playing and you see it on TV,’ Bellingham said.
The midfielder will be crucial if Dortmund are to qualify for the Champions League – and also overcome a vulnerable Chelsea side in this season’s last-16.
Can Freiburg continue to defy gravity?
Can Freiburg do a Leicester? That might be wishing for a little too much but the team from the Black Forest went into the long winter break closest to Bayern.
After smashing other surprise packages Union Berlin 4-1 on November 13 to cement second spot, Christian Streich and his team didn’t want the season to stop.
Freiburg had five players at the World Cup but the furthest any of them got was the last-16, meaning they’ve had more rest and recovery than most.
Freiburg’s Ritsu Doan in action for the surprise packages of the Bundesliga season so far
But it isn’t like Freiburg came totally out of nowhere. Streich has been in charge of the team since 2011 and was assistant before that, impressively building them up over a decade and more.
They’ve achieved upper half finishes before and last season were in the running for Champions League football until the final day as well as runners-up in the German Cup final.
Their only losses so far this season have come against big fishes Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig, while the majority of their other games have been victories, with eight clean sheets into the bargain.
Michael Gregoritsch celebrates a goal for Freiburg against Borussia Dortmund in August
Matthias Ginter and captain Christian Gunter have ensured a mean defence while the attacking trio of Italy international Vincenzo Grifo, Japan’s Ritsu Doan and Austria’s Michael Gregoritsch have blended nicely.
Resuming with a trip to Wolfsburg on Saturday, there’s no reason why Freiburg couldn’t achieve the fairytale of a first Champions League appearance.
Can Leipzig overhaul Bayern for their first title?
If Leipzig succeed in beating Bayern this Friday, they can move to within three points of the leaders and it will be very much game on.
They have recovered from a false start to the campaign which saw coach Domenico Tedesco dispensed with following just one win from their first five Bundesliga games.
Marco Rose, formerly of Borussia Monchengladbach and Dortmund, came in and they’ve suffered just the one league defeat since, climbing their way from mid-table to a more familiar third spot.
Christopher Nkunku was enjoying a fine season for RB Leipzig prior to his injury setback
They also negotiated their Champions League group – having lost the first two games – to set up an appetising two-legged tie against Manchester City.
Striker Christopher Nkunku has certainly bloomed under Rose, scoring in six consecutive games in league and Europe just before the World Cup hiatus.
It’s easy to see why big-spending Chelsea have triggered his £53million release clause with the move expected to go through in the summer.
Nkunku won’t be involved on Friday because of the knee injury that he heart-breaking suffered in France’s final training session before the World Cup.
RB Leipzig will look to Andre Silva (pictured) and Timo Werner to compensate for Nkunku
It’ll fall to Timo Werner and Andre Silva to compensate for as long as top scorer Nkunku is sidelined but thankfully both are in decent nick this season.
When the two sides met in the curtain-raising SuperCup back in July, a ding-dong affair finished 5-3 in Bayern’s favour.
We may not even be halfway through the Bundesliga season, but for the neutrals a Leipzig win on Friday is definitely the preferable outcome.
Can Schalke get themselves off the bottom?
With just nine points from their opening 15 games, basement club Schalke already have the doomed look about them.
Although it’s just a five point gap to the safety of 15th, the evidence of the first half of the season is that this increasingly basket case club isn’t going to clamber to safety.
They started the season with Frank Kramer in charge but he was fired after just 12 matches at the helm.
Schalke already look doomed to relegation and have taken just nine points from 15 matches
Schalke then hired Thomas Reis, most recently in charge at fellow struggler Bochum. At least Reis is familiar with the lower reaches of the table but there has been no immediate upturn in fortunes.
They did manage to beat Mainz but his other three games in charge ended in defeat.
The lengthy break will have allowed him some quality time on the training ground with his charges and they really have to start winning, beginning with Saturday’s trip to Eintracht Frankfurt.
How the bottom of the Bundesliga looks – the bottom two clubs are relegated while the third bottom goes into a relegation play-off against the third-placed 2. Bundesliga side
Schalke’s financial strife is well documented and it was hoped their return to the Bundesliga at the first time of asking last season would signal an upturn in fortunes.
But with funds tight, January signings are unlikely, and as it stands they’re heading straight back down to the 2. Bundesliga.
Stuttgart and Bochum occupy the other two relegation places with Hertha Berlin perched precariously just above.
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